Nokia 8 Sirocco hands-on: all-glass design, larger battery, curved edge-to-edge screen, Qi charging, and water resistance, but it's pricey at €749, coming April
Context & Ripple Effects
The Sirocco is HMD Global's second swing at a premium Nokia since its Nokia 8 debut last August at $705, and it lands one day after the company laid out its full MWC lineup from an $85 Oreo Go handset up to this €749 flagship. The pitch is design-led: all-glass body, curved edge-to-edge screen, Qi charging, and water resistance — features the original Nokia 8 didn't carry.
The price is the story within the story. At €749 the Sirocco sits just under where Samsung priced the Note8 at $930-$960 across US carriers, meaning HMD is asking near-flagship money for a device whose differentiators are build and optics partnerships rather than spec leadership.
First-order effects
- Buyers choosing between the Sirocco and Samsung's Note8 face a ~€200 gap for roughly comparable screen size, with HMD betting that Zeiss optics and the glass-and-steel design close it.
- HMD now has a four-tier portfolio spanning €85 to €749, forcing its retail and carrier partners to merchandise Nokia as a full-range brand rather than a budget-revival play.
Second-order effects
- Razer's Razer Phone 2 later ships at $799 with Qi wireless charging, confirming the $750-$800 tier as contested ground where wireless charging has become table stakes rather than a differentiator.
- Samsung's carrier-bundling playbook around the Note8 — throwing in cameras, SD cards, and charging pads — pressures HMD to add launch incentives of its own if the Sirocco stalls at €749.
Third-order effects
- If the premium experiment holds, HMD iterates annually at the top: the following year's Nokia 9 PureView arrives at $699 with five rear cameras, suggesting the brand learned the €749 ceiling was too high and repriced ambition downward while doubling down on camera differentiation.
- Structurally, the Sirocco marks the point where licensed-brand revivals stop competing on nostalgia and start competing on industrial design — a template other resurrected brands would need to match to charge flagship prices.
The trend: HMD is using the licensed Nokia name to climb from budget Android into the premium tier, with each MWC cycle testing how far above midrange pricing the brand can sustain.